


Find Someone to Carry You

by anarchycox



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, F/M, Major Character Injuries, Post Season 4, Race Against Time, Secret Relationship, expansion from a prompt on tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-11-02 17:43:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10949532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anarchycox/pseuds/anarchycox
Summary: This started as a request on tumblr for Philinda and a piggy back ride. I think it was meant to be fluffy and then it turned out not. Edited and expanded from the tumblr story.





	Find Someone to Carry You

Despite what most of SHIELD thought, Phil had never been a boy scout. He didn't know 30 different knots, he was crap at starting a fire without some sort of starter, and he didn't magically know how to look at the stars and find his way.

Luckily the car Daisy had stolen to get her and FitzSimmons away, had left tire treads in the mud that even in the dark could be followed. He was pretty sure the safe house wasn't more than a kilometer. Or maybe it was three. It didn't matter really, whatever it was, he was getting Melinda there. He had taken a two minute break to catch his breath. That may have been a mistake. He could feel each bruise and strain. He refused to feel the things that were worse.

Phil took a breath and started walking again. He tried whistling but stopped soon after. "I know you hate that," he said. "I don't think my skills are that bad, but I know it drives you insane. Sort of like how you crack your knuckles. I always wonder, doesn't that hurt?" A cloud blocked the moon for a minute and he stopped again. Stopping was really not a good idea. The second the trail was lit he got moving. Oxfords were really not the right shoe for this walk.

Phil hitched her up a little higher, hands under her knees. “You know you could help me a little more here,” he said, huffing as the ground sloped up. “Of course not. I know, I know, I need to work out more. But not like I have a lot of time these days.” He kept putting one foot in front of the other, staring at her hands draped over his shoulders. “Remember that one exercise, where we did this at the academy? We came in third,” he laughed a little. “And I dropped you. Thought you would kill me.” He hitched her up again. “I know I’ve dropped you plenty. I tried not to, but I did. But never again okay?” He made a promise to her two months ago, he wouldn't break it this soon.

He stopped for a moment. Phil could see the lights of the safe house. “I’m not going to drop you again Melinda. Ever.” He took a breath and shouted and kept moving forward, though his adrenaline was fading fast and he was finally not able to ignore the bullet in his side. Aware of the blood that was dripping down the too still hand draped over his shoulder. Aware of the fact that he couldn't hear her breathe.

Phil dropped to his knees when Daisy and Jemma came running out of the house. It hurt, jarred whatever was broken inside him. But Melinda was still on his shoulders. Her head dropped heavy against him.

“See didn’t drop you, never going -” Phil couldn’t say anymore, the black that had been edging at his vision taking over.

*************************************************

“What the hell? Oh god,” Daisy said as she ran forward to where Phil had fallen, May on his back. “Jemma, med kit,” she yelled. Jemma turned and ran back into the house.

“Get up, get up, get up, why aren’t you getting up?” Daisy said, begged.

Daisy carefully pulled Melinda off of Phil. There was so much blood, on her face, her uniform, just dripping sluggishly from her. Daisy tried to find a pulse, crying when she couldn’t. If blood was still pouring though, it had to mean a heart was beating, right? She half carried, half dragged Melinda into the safe house. “Help?” she asked.

Fitz hurried over from where he had been helping Jemma prep, they didn’t exactly have a full medical theatre. Fitz helped Daisy pick May up, and they put her on the bed.

“I can’t find a pulse,” Daisy whispered. She was shaking.

“Go get, Phil,” Jemma said sharply, putting on gloves. Daisy and Fitz ran outside. They froze when they realized he was still out and hadn't moved at all. They moved quickly to Phil.

“He’s breathing,” Fitz said, crouching beside him. “But it doesn’t sound good.”

It was harder for them to get Phil inside, he was heavier than they expected, it was easy to forget all the muscle under the suits.

Jemma was working, furiously over Melinda, most of her clothes cut off, showing several stab wounds. The only other space available was the kitchen table. Fitz wiped it down and they managed to get Phil on top.

“Fitz, try to assess Phil, we might have to make a hard choice soon,” Jemma’s voice was dispassionate, her hands steady.

“What do you mean?” Daisy asked. She watched as Fitz began stripping Phil down. She didn’t know what to do. Coulson and May had stayed behind to give the rest of the team time to get out. To get them out.

Jemma looked at Daisy. “It isn’t good.”

“Bullet wound, no exit,” Fitz said. “Torso, but no blood in his mouth, breath is reedy but there. Guessing it isn’t lodge in a lung.”

“I’m not equipped to do major exploratory surgery. I can try to stabilize them both for our exit in four hours, but I don’t know if -” Jemma trailed off. “I’ll do what I can, but Coulson is the senior agent and protocol dictates -”

“And you know what he would say, we all do,” Fitz argued. “He carried her, probably thinking she was dead, and he still carried her here, with a goddamn bullet in his gut. You know what he would want.”

Jemma nodded and bent back over May.

“So what? We are leaving Phil to die?” Daisy asked. She reached out and held his hand.

“We are praying he lives,” Fitz said. Jemma didn’t say anything, working hard to keep May alive like Coulson would have ordered, if he could have.

Daisy watched 30 minutes tick by, and Phil was getting paler. Neither he nor May woke up. Jemma was just covered in blood. "I have her sutured as much as I can, but she needs a transfusion desperately." Jemma changed her gloves and came over to Phil. "I -" Jemma wouldn't let the tears fall. "I don't know if."

Daisy looked at them and nodded a bit. "I can do a thing." 

"Whatever it is, you need to do it fast," Jemma said. She started to examine Coulson.

Daisy pulled out her phone, relieved it had survived the fight. She opened a secured file, one that Coulson had told her was a one time only thing, and only if her life was in absolute complete and certain danger of death. But Coulson and May mattered. She hit send and waited for a pick up. "We need help." Daisy gave their co-ordinates. "Our extraction is three and a half hours out and I don't think that May and Coulson will last that long." She waited and there was a click and then nothing.

"Well?" Jemma asked, she was clearly on the edge of exhaustion.

"I don't know," Daisy said. 

They both ignored Fitz's quiet prayers beside May.

************************************************

"Fly faster," Nick said to Clint.

"I'm flying as fast as this will go," Clint answered. "ETA is 15 minutes, we are getting there 2 hours ahead of their extraction time."

"Might not be good enough," Nick muttered. He could hear the doctor prepping at the back of the quinjet.

"What this is Phil's fourth time dying? He'll pull through," Clint said, but he was flying as quickly as he could.

"His girl, wouldn't have used that number if she thought they'd pull through," Nick looked. "There."

"I see it, old man," Clint said. "No place to land. I'll hover and we can drop some ropes and medical boards."

"I'll go assist the doctor." Nick hit the button to open the back. He hooked up ropes. "Doc, just hit that button and it will pull people up." He grabbed two boards and a rope and swung out of the jet. Phil's girl came running out. 

"They aren't good," she shouted.

"Yeah, yeah, take one of these and move," he said. They hurried into the house where Jemma was performing CPR on Phil. 

"He's crashing!" 

Nick hurried over and began to press down on Phil's chest. They worked together and managed to get a heartbeat. "Get the board." Nick picked Phil up and strapped him in. He made sure that the kids weren't looking and slid Phil's wedding band onto his finger. "Quake on three. You two get May prepped." Nick and Daisy hurried Phil out and hooked him and the doctor raised him up. Fitz and Simmons were bringing May out and Nick bumped Fitz out of the way. He did the same slight of hand to get May's wedding band on as well. Soon they were headed up as well. Jemma hurried over to the doctor and gave her report.

"Blood in there," he pointed to a chest. "Get May hooked up, while I scan Phil." 

Jemma carefully hooked a line to Melinda, getting her the blood she desperately needed. The other doctor was scanning Phil. "There. The bullet grazed his liver, internal bleeding but as long as he doesn't code again, he should make it to surgery." the doctor began to hook Phil up to monitors. Once done he kept scanning. "Hairline fractures in his shin."

"He carried her the whole way," Daisy said.

Nick looked at her. "Of course he did." Phil wouldn't have done anything else. "You carry your partner as far as you can, for as long as you can, and then a click past that." He looked at everyone. "Keep them alive or I'm going to be cranky."

"They have a chance," the doctor said. "If we were much later, doubtful, but there is a chance." Nick went to the front with Clint.

"Sir?" Clint asked. He looked ready to get up and check.

"They don't need you back there, they're going to be fighting against the clock the whole way in." Nick stayed put when the doctor started shouting. There were going to be nail gouges in the arms of the chair. When they landed a medical team was waiting and whisked Phil and Melinda away. Nick and Clint stayed in the cockpit until the others were out, following Phil and Melinda in. Nick got up first and started to move. He crouched and pressed a hand to some blood on the ground. He'd like to say he could just tell it was Phil's, but it easily could have been Melinda's.

He felt Clint beside him. "You get the rings on them?"

"Yeah," Nick said. "Kept that promise."

"Good," Clint said. "Come on, we're needed in Jakarta, and we'll make no difference here. He's their's not ours, not anymore."

Nick nodded and they switched planes and left their old friend to his fate.

************************************

Fitz looked at them. The note Fury had left had said that May and Coulson should be roomed together. Phil had coded twice during surgery and Melinda wasn't responding to treatment. At this point they were testing for poisons. They were stable, but no one had hope.

"I'm sorry, it's me," he said into the silence. "I imagine there are others you'd prefer standing here, but Daisy couldn't stay awake longer, and Jemma is trying to figure out why Melinda won't wake up. Mack is still cleaning up, and..." Fitz trailed off. "And you have me." He looked at them. "I saw them, you know. I don't think anyone else noticed, but I did. Ye should have told us." He fidgeted a little. "It's the two of you, you always come back, maybe a bit broken yeah? But you always come back. So come back." Fitz went and sat in a chair against the wall. "And I am waiting right here until you do."

Fitz sat there as doctors came in and gave the two different medications, as first May and then Phil were wheeled out for more surgery. He sat there when they were brought back and the next five days as well. No one could understand why he wouldn't move. He stayed awake each time Daisy fell asleep beside him. Fitz couldn't even say why he was so determined to keep an eye on them. Just that he had to. Perhaps because he was the only one to notice the rings. He wanted them to wake up and explain why they didn't let the team know. There should have been a party. Or a drink.

Something to acknowledge that Phil and May were different now.

That it was okay with everyone.

So he just kept watching. And waiting.

*************************************

Everything felt heavy, hurt more than she remembered hurting. She didn't know numb could be so painful. She could hear people but when she tried to speak nothing came out. She couldn't open her eyes. Nothing was moving. She tried to think.

Hospital smell, the sound of monitors.

Arms, needles, i.v.s.

Weight of a blanket, light, a bit itchy.

Weight of a wedding band. Heavy, perfect. 

Phil. Phil picking her up, promising to get her home was the last thing she remembered. She would have to yell at him for that. He had been too injured to carry her.

When she woke up, that would be the first thing she would do.

Melinda slid back into the comforting darkness.

**************************************

Phil opened his eyes.

"Melinda," he whispered in the smallest voice.

He managed to turn his head a little and saw her in the bed next to his. Saw the wedding band, his band on her finger. They had agreed that if it looked bad and they had a chance to get their rings, they would wear each other's. A stupid promise, which only made sense to them.

They were together, he had carried her all the way.

It was okay.

He could sleep again.

****************************************

Daisy was the one to move their beds together, once they all realized that Phil and Melinda had secretly married.

48 hours later they were both waking up and staying awake.

Jemma looked at her. "What did you do?"

Daisy just shrugged. "When don't they bring each other back from the brink?" She smiled as the two on the beds shifted in their sleep just enough so that their hands were grazing.


End file.
